


Moody Goddess

by The_Exile



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Angst, Celine teases Chisato, Gen, Reminiscing, Spoilers, lots of missiles, or is she?, paranoid Welch, postgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 17:11:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2819894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chisato tells her audience, which for the moment is only Celine and Welch, the tale of how she became able to use Missile Strike, and also how she already knew everything about the situation on Nede.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moody Goddess

_  
'Project Tria'. The name of the application running on the open terminal, on the control panel at the far side of the room, told me everything I needed to know. That, and the level of security surrounding this place, almost equalling the Symbological Weapons Laboratory. In fact, the two facilities resembled each other in more ways than one. They both felt like they had been abandoned for billions of years, like they were a part of the old Nede that didn't belong in the eternally sealed, virtual Nede that wanted no part in the outside world. They both gave me the impression that something was hidden away in their depths that was too dangerous to be released._

_Which meant that I needed to know what it was in advance, just in case. After all, it wasn't the first time that something from these ancient institutions had awoken without anyone realising, had started moving on its own, with catastrophic consequences. Over billions of years, if something was forgotten, it would eventually find a way to escape and follow its own plan. It was as inevitable as the change that the Nedian authorities seemed convinced that they had conquered, the march of time they believed they had halted just by stopping our own evolution._

_Tria. A deity older than Nedian history. The Goddess worshipped by every civilisation that their galactic empire had ever come across, no matter how otherwise alien their culture. A fickle Goddess of many faces, of change, creation and destruction. Whatever was in development here, to give it a title like that, implied that it was more significant, both as a blessing and a curse, than any other project. Apart from this project, only the Wise Men had been named after the servants of deities._

_I had already found a back door into the facility using the passwords I had obtained from the North City library, with some help from the scientists in Princebridge. Despite how ominous it all looked, these sites had surprisingly lax security if you were an ace reporter with plenty of contacts like me. There might have been some automated security measures left in place as well, but it wasn't like I couldn't handle a few drones, turrets and what looked, come to think of it, like a prototype of Shigeo. Now all that was left to do, was to walk carefully over to the terminal, in case it was booby-trapped with explosives like the one in the last room, and activate the program to see what exactly it was that the old Nedian civilisation considered to be worthy of Tria's name._

_A holographic display opened up all around me, focussed on the centre of the room, where a map of Energy Nede hung in mid-air, while the celestial bodies that currently surrounded it in space followed their orbit, heedless of its existence. Nede always had assumed the whole Universe revolved around it, but only when it stood still and did nothing was this possible. What I noticed first, though, probably because they were flashing red in uniform clusters all around Nede, was the huge standing fleet of starships of various different grades, mostly frigates and cruisers but a couple of battleships, all armed with various sizes of missiles and ready for an orbital strike on the planet. The targeting systems all had built-in teleport fields so that, at the very last minute, the missiles could be teleported straight through obstacles without even reducing their momentum. They had been patiently waiting for as long as Energy Nede existed, but they were still active, ready to fire at any time._

_I considered trying to do something about the situation, maybe shut down the facility for good, find the targeting beacons for the ships and cause them to turn off, but I wasn't sure I knew how to do that. I had broken into a few low-grade military facilities in my time, but nothing as dangerous as starship command codes. If something had gone wrong with the programming over the long aeons, or if the code had been tampered with by Indalecio as had happened to the Wise Men, I didn't want to think about what might happen. All I could do was make a copy of the code and find somewhere I could take it for further examination. I confess that I was partly just too startled by the situation to know what to do. Nothing like this was supposed to exist in Energy Nede. Starships such as this were only used for conquering, or for controlling a population – the exact sort of activity that Nede had forsworn after realising they were too good at it to guarantee they wouldn't accidentally harm the Universe itself._

_As soon as I left the facility, I found myself surrounded by the Defence Force. Upon reflection, I should have realised it had all gone a little too smoothly. They had been waiting for me to find Project Tria, probably even relying upon it. The Mayor and Mirage were with them, too, so I knew they were aware of how potentially serious this was, not just a knee-jerk response to me ending up in places I shouldn't be able to. I immediately threatened to release the information to the public, of course. I was actually surprised they wanted to negotiate. Normally, I end up having to disappear for a while when things get this serious._

_The first thing I asked the Mayor, was why the project had been named Tria._

_“To make it clear to the Ten Wise Men that there was something left that was more dangerous than them, and that wasn't under their control,” explained Mirage._

_“You would have bombarded Energy Nede with missiles for that?”_

_“Energy Nede hadn't been built yet. This was still part of the old Nede, and could have hit most of the core planets of the Nede solar system,” said Mirage, “We hadn't known the full extent of Indalecio's plans at the time, or that he had the Rune of Annihilation. The Wise Men were just ten powerful, out-of-control cyborgs. But still dangerous enough that we would sacrifice a planet to destroy them. It became too dangerous once we knew they had the Rune, though, and anyway, by that time, we already couldn't have breached the shields around Phynal.”_

_“We were worried that Indalecio would find out about it and subvert it, so we cut off all contact with it,” added the Mayor, “Obviously, such installations have no place in the new Energy Nede.”_

_“But they were considered normal in the old Nede? How many other installations are there like this?”_

_“Just the one. This one was considered too dangerous to go into, even to permanently shut down,” said the Mayor, “It was pointed straight at the Wise Men, and it was already known that Indalecio could subvert Defence Force facilities. Myself and Mirage were probably being watched by their spies, and our access codes tracked, but we knew you would try and sneak in using a fake ID based on an obsolete access code, which we thought might have worked.”_

_“So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to use the weapons on Phynal?”_

_“We doubt we'd get enough of the missiles through the shields to make much of an impact, and we'd hit our own troops,” said Mirage, “But we think that some of the smaller frigates would fire light enough missiles that the shields wouldn't register them as a serious attack, and they might slip through. They could be used as air support for a ground assault by a small force.”_

_“And you're planning such a mission again? It didn't work the last time! You'd just be wasting more troops!”_

_“You don't mince your words, do you? The old Nedian Government would probably have made sure you quietly disappeared a long time ago,” the Mayor sighed, “But, in a situation like ours, we rely on you to find out the truth for us, as well as the people, even if you go and use it against us half the time. There are things we really insist you don't tell some people, though. It's very important to the future of the Universe.”_

_“What do you mean? I'm not making any promises to hide information! You think people are going to just let something like this hang over their heads because they're scared of the Wise Men?”_

_“Not Project Tria, Chisato,” the Mayor sighed, “There have been certain... developments that are going to change the face of the conflict quite soon. They're regarding some visitors who suddenly reached us from outside Energy Nede.”_

_“Outside Energy Nede? But that's impossible!”_

_“So I thought, but it's happened. And the reason behind their appearance changes a lot of things. You're bound to come into contact with them one way or another, so I need your co-operation right here and now. I'm not asking you to hide anything from the wider population, just from these specific visitors. In return, as a token of good will, I'll let you keep the launch codes for the missiles and show you how to program them properly. And I can promise I'll personally tell the public everything I'm about to tell you. Actually, there's no way I'd be able to go through with my plan without getting everyone's permission. I wouldn't be able to call myself a person if I didn't.”  
_

* * *

“And that's how you found out that Energy Nede was going to be destroyed?” asked Celine, “They really bribed you with missiles?”

“It must make me sound like a terrible person,” Chisato sighed.

“Oh, I didn't mean it like that. Those missile strikes of yours were indispensable in battle. We couldn't have won without you. I've just always been a little confused as to why they let you have them. Again, no offence,” said Celine, “It must have been an unbearable burden, to have a secret like that hidden away in your heart.”

“It doesn't feel as bad as being one of the last three of your species left alive.”

“Apart from the...” began Welch, who was curled up on the sofa, half-asleep. Celine glared at her.

“Apart from the Wise Men you insist you saw escape, because you're obsessed, Welch, and for your information, they don't count as Nedians. Now, Chisato,” Celine gave her a look that Chisato had already learned from experience to beware of, “When are you and Noel going to get to work repopulating your species?”

Chisato went red in the face, “... With NOEL? I'd rather... I'd rather unleash an entire new race of half-Nedian mutant abominations upon Expel!”

“Aww, I don't think they'd be abominations, I think they'd be cute!” commented Welch.

“I... why are we talking about this? What is this, the gossip column? Honestly, harassing me about that sort of thing when you already have Rena and Claude...”

“Why? What about Rena and Claude?” Celine demanded.

Chisato sighed and rolled her eyes, “Amateurs...”

**Author's Note:**

> years ago I wrote a similar fic called 'Stop the Press' which I now think doesn't really make sense in the overall story of the game, especially the PSP remake, also it covered a lot of area already covered in other fics. So I wrote this instead.


End file.
